jaylectricity
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Occupation
- licensed journeyman electrician
I have one customer/contractor that gives me some decent business. Sometimes he has "hack" jobs going on, but other times he has good customers willing to pay nicely for my services. Even the hack jobs I do properly as far as the electrical work is concerned.
Two months ago he teased me with a job involving 88 hot water heaters in a condo complex. He told me about it, and how he was bidding it and asked how much I would want to disconnect 4 HW heaters in the morning and re-connect them after they replaced them during that day. He said that his guys could do 4 a day and that there was a lot of working area for each heater.
He met with the "owners" of the building today and I really can't tell if he:
1. Is still trying to get the job --or--
2. Has the job but is trying to expedite it
He said he is trying to get that work going and I believe him, but I'm wondering if I can count on it happening.
In general he is a really good guy (AND a good customer) who tells me things the way they are, but one other time he talked about a pretty sweet job involving going to New York city for a week, getting free hotel all expenses paid (including mini-bar) to install sump pumps under a major branch of Bank of America. He told me about the last time he worked for them, but eventually said that some other contractor was still in the process of doing some other work for them first. On the other hand he has dangled a few jobs to me here and there that I thought that I would never do, or never get paid for but those jobs ended up working out to my satisfaction.
That NY job was last year and we've worked together plenty of times since then and my chicken-before-hatched counting has been limited. This water heater job could be especially beneficial to me due to the fact that I can do the work before and after every regular day of work and will require virtually no materials. (a few wire nuts and a romex connector) Plus I could probably get half the money upfront and collect the rest when we're done.
What do you guys think about this situation? Have you had similar situations where a job was dangled in front of you and how often did everything work out?
Again, my chicken-counting skills have gotten much better, but it would be nice to be able to plan this stuff out in my life. I'll be back tomorrow to check out some of the responses. I hope I've detailed this post enough to reduce the number of questions you may have.
Edit to add: I'll be here for another half hour or so, so if you do have questions...now's the time.
Two months ago he teased me with a job involving 88 hot water heaters in a condo complex. He told me about it, and how he was bidding it and asked how much I would want to disconnect 4 HW heaters in the morning and re-connect them after they replaced them during that day. He said that his guys could do 4 a day and that there was a lot of working area for each heater.
He met with the "owners" of the building today and I really can't tell if he:
1. Is still trying to get the job --or--
2. Has the job but is trying to expedite it
He said he is trying to get that work going and I believe him, but I'm wondering if I can count on it happening.
In general he is a really good guy (AND a good customer) who tells me things the way they are, but one other time he talked about a pretty sweet job involving going to New York city for a week, getting free hotel all expenses paid (including mini-bar) to install sump pumps under a major branch of Bank of America. He told me about the last time he worked for them, but eventually said that some other contractor was still in the process of doing some other work for them first. On the other hand he has dangled a few jobs to me here and there that I thought that I would never do, or never get paid for but those jobs ended up working out to my satisfaction.
That NY job was last year and we've worked together plenty of times since then and my chicken-before-hatched counting has been limited. This water heater job could be especially beneficial to me due to the fact that I can do the work before and after every regular day of work and will require virtually no materials. (a few wire nuts and a romex connector) Plus I could probably get half the money upfront and collect the rest when we're done.
What do you guys think about this situation? Have you had similar situations where a job was dangled in front of you and how often did everything work out?
Again, my chicken-counting skills have gotten much better, but it would be nice to be able to plan this stuff out in my life. I'll be back tomorrow to check out some of the responses. I hope I've detailed this post enough to reduce the number of questions you may have.
Edit to add: I'll be here for another half hour or so, so if you do have questions...now's the time.
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